New Delhi, June 4
Currently under the direct charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Culture Ministry is unlikely to get a full-fledged Cabinet minister in a hurry. It may appoint a cultural adviser or opt for an expert instead of a politician for this job.
UPA sources said Congress president Sonia Gandhi is expected to handpick a person of her choice for this post given her interest in the subject, having done courses on art restoration and conservation, and served on various institutions like the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
The government is also looking at the possibility of investing the Central Advisory Board for Culture (CABC) with greater powers to oversee the implementation of a cultural plan and guide the work of various cultural institutions and national missions.
For the moment, Minister of State for Planning V Narayanswamy, has been given additional charge of the ministry but it is only a temporary arrangement. The UPA sources said this post was deliberately kept vacant when the list of Council of Ministers was drawn up.
A number of names of possible contenders are already doing the rounds.Prominent among them are cultural historian Jyotindra Jain and Kapila Vatsyayan, an eminent scholar of Indian art, architechture and classical dance. Vatsyayan’s name invariably crops up in such situations because of her long association with three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family. When she was removed from the board of the prestigious IGNCA by the NDA government, she was promptly rehabilitated when the UPA government came to power. In addition she was also named the vice-chairperson of the 11-member of the Culture Ministry’s advisory board.
Jain, who was till recently Professor with the Department of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, and is now with the IGNCA, is also known for his proximity to the Congress president.The UPA sources said the Congress president may accommodate the proposed contender in the Rajya Sabha as a seat from Delhi has fallen vacant after its member Jai Prakash Aggarwal moved to the Lok Sabha.
Vatsyayan is presently a nominated member of the RS and though there is no rule banning her from taking up a ministerial position, none of the 100-odd nominated members have, so far, been inducted into the Council of Ministers. According to the RS rules, a nominated member is allowed six months, should he or she decide to join a political party after taking a seat in the Upper House in this category.
